


Through the Years

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Growing Old Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 09:09:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10331267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Inspired by the song "The Gambler" by fun.Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	

Slow down, we’ve got time left to be lazy  
All the kids have bloomed from babies into flowers in our eyes.  
We’ve got fifty good years left to spend out in the garden  
I don’t care to beg your pardon,  
We should live until we die.

\----

As kids, both Noah and Kayla looked at their parents as the picture of happiness. What marriage should be about. They were barely 22 when they both met at the BAU, which they were now leading together. Married and working together for nearly 35 years. It was almost too good to be true.

Noah and Kayla both yearned for the type of relationship their parents had - with each other and with them. No matter how much time they worked, each of them made time to be lazy. To spend doing nothing. Just watching their kids grow. Every Saturday, whether they were away on a case or not, they made it a point to relax and watch Noah and Kayla play out in the garden. It was a simple garden, just a couple flowers and a small swing set, but it was perfect. If they were home, they’d spend a few hours watching them on the swings, and if they were away, Noah would set up a laptop so they could watch anyway. Despite their jobs, they never missed a chance to see their son and daughter grow up. They’d nailed the balance between family and work.

\----

We were barely 22 when we crossed collective hearts.  
It was cold, but it got warm when you barely crossed my eye.  
And then you turned, put out your hand,  
And you asked me to dance.  
I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight.

\----

Noah remembered a day when he was very young. It was the day he realized his parents relationship was different than that of his friends’ parents. He was about nine, and asked his father to recount the story of how they started. “Oh, that’s a good story,” Y/N had said, rubbing her husband’s arm. “Go ahead, honey. You tell him.”

“Well, when your mother and I first met, it was at the Bureau. She was, and still is,” he said, looking to his side, “extremely beautiful and I had no idea what to do. I still don’t really. Anyway, we started working together, and we got partnered up a lot.”

“I think that was Hotch’s doing,” his mother laughed, remembering her boss’s insistence that they work together so frequently. “I think he was rooting for us.” 

“Me too. One night, maybe about six months after we started working together, the team made us all go out for drinks and dancing. I wanted nothing to do with the dancing, but your mother got up from her chair and extended her hand out to me. The way she took my hand…I just knew,” he’d smiled.

\----

I swear when I grow up, I won’t just buy you a rose.  
I will buy the flower shop, and you will never be lonely.  
Even if the sun stopped waking up over the fields  
I will not leave, I will not leave ‘till it’s our time.  
So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side.

\----

One of the things that both son and daughter so admired about their parents was their absolute commitment to each other. That’s not to say that they did absolutely everything together, but whenever a problem arose, no matter how big or how small, they were at each other’s side. His father had always said that when you found the one you loved, you wanted to be at their side, no matter what stood in the way.

When Kayla had turned nine, she too asked them the secret to their marriage. How they made it last. “It’s not as hard as people make it seem. But even the smallest thing can be difficult at times. If you want to end up with someone as long as I’ve been with your father, there’s only a few things you need to know. Communicate no matter what and make sure that even if you’re separated for some reason, the one you love never feels lonely. Do those two things and you’ll be fine.”

\----

And now he’s turning to a man, though he thinks just like his mother,  
He believes we’re all just lovers he sees hope in everyone.

And even though she moved away,  
We always get calls from our daughter.  
She has eyes just like her father’s  
They are blue when skies are grey  
And just like him, she never stops,  
Never takes the day for granted,  
Works for everything that’s handed to her,  
Never once complains.

\----

Noah wouldn’t have been the man that he was if it wasn’t for the way his parents raised him - and the marriage they’d grown and fostered over the years. He took after Spencer in a lot of respects, wanting to go into law enforcement as well, but he held the same beliefs as his mother. All he wanted was to be happy and one day love someone as much as his father loved his mother.

While Noah stayed home for college, Kayla ended up going away. At first, Noah thought his parents would be devastated to have their daughter move so far away, but unlike their friends’ relationships with their parents, Kayla hated moving away from them - only doing it because her major of choice was located across the country. But just like her parents, no matter how busy she was, she made it a point of Skyping her mother, father and brother to fill them in on the previous week. 

Unlike Noah, the lover, Kayla ended up the fighter. She worked her ass off just like their mother did, deserving everything she’d earned. Though the two grew up with the same love from their parents, they ended up very different from each other - but despite their differences, Spencer and Y/N were equally proud of the people they’d become. 

\----

You think that I nearly lost you  
When the doctors tried to take you away.  
But like the night you took my hand beside the fire  
Thirty years ago to this day  
You swore you’d be here 'til we decide that it’s our time  
Well it’s not time, you’ve never quit in all your life.  
So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side.  
You’re the love of my life, you know that I will never leave your side.

\----

Watching his mother get sick was one of the worst aspects of Noah’s life, but it also showed him just how strong his parents’ relationship was. As she lay in the hospital, he overheard his father whispering to her. “You told me when it was our time we would go together so we would never have to be without each other. Well, it’s not our time. We’re still too young for that. We have too many more years ahead to watch our son and daughter grow up into the amazing people we’ve helped them become, so don’t you dare quit on me now. Do you hear me?”

From outside the room, Noah heard his mother. “I hear you, Spence. I may be sick, but we have too much life left to live. I promised I would never leave your side, and I intend to keep my word.”


End file.
